756 



UNITED STATES. 



For these and other reasons, which might be men- 

 tioned I cannot join in the call for the convention 

 in Philadelphia. I have said that many of the prin- 

 ciples stated in the call are, in my view, unobjection- 

 able. I will not stop to criticise those which are ob- 

 iectionable, but content myself with stating that the 

 call fails to take any notice of one of the great issues 

 now before the American people. I allude to the ques- 

 tion whether the several States shall ratify or reject the 

 last amendment proposed by Congress to the Consti- 

 tution of the United States. This is a grave and all- 

 important question. The issue upon it cannot be 

 avoided. It should be placed fairly and squarely be- 

 fore the people. The failure to take ground upon so 

 important and all-absorbing a question, must be at- 

 tributed either to a desire to avoid the issue, or as a 

 declaration of belief and policy against the adoption 

 of the amendment. Being myself earnestly and de- 

 cidedly in favor of the adoption of the amendment 

 by the States, I cannot go into an organization that 

 would either openly oppose that measure, or that 

 would smother it by avoiding its discussion. 



On July llth the Postmaster-General, Mr. 

 "W. Dennison, of Ohio, tendered his resignation. 

 It was accepted by the President, and A. W. 

 Randall, of Wisconsin, appointed his successor. 

 The resignation of Mr. Dennison was sent to 

 the President, as he said in his letter, " because 

 of tlie difference of opinion between us in re- 

 gard to the proposed amendment of the Consti- 

 tution, which I approve, and the movement for 

 the convention to be held in Philadelphia, to 

 which I am opposed." Mi-. Speed subsequently 

 tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by 

 Henry Stanbery, of Ohio. The Secretary of 

 the Interior, Mr. Harlan, of Iowa, soon after 

 being elected Senator, resigned, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Orville H. Browning, of Illinois. 



The measures to secure the convention in 

 Philadelphia were condemned and repudiated 

 by the great mass of the Republicans, and the 

 majority in Congress. At the same time the pro- 

 ceedings of the latter were condemned by many 

 of the radicals, among whom was Mr. Phillips, 

 who, in a speech befere the Anti-slavery So- 

 ciety, charged that Congress acted " merely 

 with a view to bridge over the fall elections," 

 without even a sincere desire that the amend- 

 ment to the Constitution- should be finally rati- 

 fied. In the Southern States, the measures for 

 the convention were almost universally ap- 

 proved, as tending toward a speedy restoration 

 of the Union. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, late 

 Vice-President of the Confederacy, in a reply 

 to the committee, said : 



Individually my whole soul is enlisted in the cause 

 of a speedy, full, and perfect restoration of the Gov- 

 ernment under the Constitution, and its permanency 

 under that Constitution as it now stands. There is 

 jothing within my powerthat I am not willing cheer- 

 fully to do to effect and accomplish that end. Indeed 

 4 you will excuse me in saying it, but it is the truth), 

 would be willing to offer up my life itself, if by so 

 doing this great result could be obtained, and peace, 

 union, harmony, prosperity, happiness, and consti- 

 tutional liberty, be thereby secured to the millions 

 now living, and the untold millions hereafter to live 

 on this continent. 



Meanwhile a number of persons, designated 

 as Union men of the Southern States, on July 

 -it!) issued the following call for a convention 



of the Southern Unionists to be held in Phila- 

 delphia in September : 



To the Loyal Unionists of the South : 



The great issue is upon us. The majority in Con- 

 gress and its supporters firmly declare that the rights 

 of the citizen enumerated in the Constitution, and es- 

 tablished bythe Supreme Court, must be maintained 

 inviolate. Rebels and rebel sympathizers assert that 

 the rights of the citizens must be left to the States 

 alone, and under such regulations as the respective 

 States choose voluntarily to prescribe. 



We have seen the doctrine of State sovereignty 

 carried out in its practical results until all authority 

 in Congress was denied ; the Union temporarily de- 

 stroyed ; the constitutional rights of the citizens of 

 the South nearly annihilated, and the land desolated 

 by civil war. 



The time has corne when the reconstruction of 

 Southern State governments must be laid on consti- 

 tutional principles, orthe despotism grown up under 

 an atrocious leadership be permitted to remain. 



We know of no other plan than that Congress, un- 

 der its constitutional powers, shall now exercise its 

 authority to establish the principle whereby protec- 

 tion is made coextensive with citizenship. 



We maintain that no State, either by its organic 

 law or legislation, cau make transgression on the 

 rights of the citizen legitimate. We demand and 

 ask you to concur in demanding protection to every 

 citizen of this great Republic on the basis of equality 

 before the law ; and further, that no State govern- 

 ment should be recognized as legitimate under the 

 Constitution, in so far as it does not, by its organic 

 law, make impartial protection full and complete. 

 Under the doctrine of State sovereignty, with rebels 

 in the foreground controlling Southern legislation, 

 and embittered by disappointment in their schemes 

 to destroy the Union, there will be no safety for the 

 loyal element of the South. 



Our reliance for protection is now on Congress 

 and the great Union party which has stood, and is 

 standing, by the nationality, by the constitutional 

 rights of the citizen, and bythe beneficent principles 

 of free government. For the purpose of bringing 

 the loyal Unionists of the South into conjunction 

 again 'with the true friends of republican govern- 

 ment of the North, we invite you to send delegates, 

 in goodly numbers, from all the Southern States, in- 

 cluding Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mary- 

 land, and Delaware, to meet at Independence Hall, 

 in the city of Philadelphia, on the first Monday of 

 September next. 



It is proposed that we should meet at that time to 

 recommend measures for the establishment of such 

 governments in the South as accord with and pro- 

 tect the rights of all citizens. 



We trust this call will be responded to by numer- 

 ous delegations of such as represent the true loyalty 

 of the South. That kind of government which gives 

 full protection to all the rights of the citizen, such as 

 our fathers intended, we claim as our birthright. 

 Either the lovers of constitutional liberty must rule 

 the nation, or rebels and their sympathizers be per- 

 mitted to misrule it. Shall loyalty or disloyalty have 

 the keeping of the destinies of the nation? Let the 

 responses to this call, which is now in circulation for 

 signatures, and is being numerously signed, an- 

 swer. 



Notice is given that gentlemen at a distance can 

 have their names attached to it by sending a request 

 by letter directed to D. W. Bingham, Esq., Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



W. B. Stokes, Tenn. ; Jos. T. Fowler, Tenn. ; Jas. 

 Getty, Tenn.; A. J. Hamilton, Texas: Geo. W. 

 Paschal, Texas; C. B. Salni, Texas; Z. W. Ash- 

 burn, Ga. ; Henry G. Cole, Ga. ; J. W. McClerry, 

 Mo. ; Jno. R. Kelso, Mo. ; J. F. Benjamin, Mo. ; 

 Geo. W. Anderson, Mo. ; John B. Trott, Fairfax Co., 

 Va. ; J. M. Stewart, Alexandria, Va. ; Win. N. 



